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THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE. ED. WITH AN INTRO. AND NOTES BY MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH BY THOMAS HARDY (New York: Penguin Books, 1978. 438 pages. Illus. $2.50.) This printing of The Mayor of Casterbridge ( 1886) is the eleventh from publishing houses in the United States, according to Books in Print. Martin Seymour-Smith, a British poet, critic, and satirist, has edited a useful paperback of the novel; along with excellent notes, there is a chronology of the life and works of Thomas Hardy (18401928 ), a map of Wessex, a key to place names, the author's general preface to the Wessex edition of 1912, and the unabridged text. The critical introduction is perceptive and readable, and the editor notes the literary movements of the period when there "was a narrowing down of realism" (p. 17), to a naturalism in fiction. Hardy certainly is a realist. The alert reader who travels in Dorset will recognize many of the places mentioned in the Wessex novels. He chose Dorchester as the setting for The Mayor of Casterbridge, but the Dorchester of the eighteen-eighties is not at all like today's busy little city where only a plaque designates the spot of the old Roman ruins, an important meeting place called "The Maumbury Rings" in the novel. Most of Hardy's locations are real places thinly disguised with altered names such as Exonbury for Exeter, Evershead for Evershot, and Winton-chester for Winchester. Weydon Priors (Wayhill), just north of Melchester (Salisbury) appears today much as Hardy describes it when Michael Henchard, his wife, Susan, and the child arrive there. As Irving Howe "has stated, the opening of The Mayor of Casterbridge is one of the most brilliant in fiction" (p. 23). Hardy had an intuitive understanding of the landscape and of the people of Dorset, and his writings include anecdotes gathered from local gossip, and descriptions from the observations he noted while walking in the countryside. SeymourSmith 's perceptive comments extend the reader's understanding of the major events and themes of the novel and are indeed helpful. DORYS C. GROVER* *DORYS C. GROVER is an Associate Professor of English at East Texas State University in Commerce. She has reviewed William Humphrey's Ah, Wilderness! The Frontier in American Literature for the Review. ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW ...

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